Skip to main content

I Heart Huckabees

It's been one week since I watched I Heart Huckabees, but it's still fresh in my mind. Dubbed "an existential comedy," I think that tagline fits the bill very well.

Calling the film's tone as "quirky" and "offbeat" is too simple. Funny is funny, even if it's off the beaten path of what's traditionally funny. Like the title of the book my mother uses for her philosophy class, the unbearable heaviness of philosophy is made lighter in this film. The nature of philosophy is not knocked. Rather, it's understandable.

I've tried reading philosophy books, but my mind derails off the tracks when I try to remember names and philosophies connected to those names. This may be the case because my mind was conditioned in college to remember the name over the meaning.

Thankfully, I Heart Huckabees doesn't throw out a bunch of names and their philosophies. General ideas and concepts are thrown out in simple ways. The acting by all of the main characters is energetic, humorous and fresh. Combined with Jon Brion's score and David O. Russell's directing style, I found myself grinning the whole time.

This is definitely not your standard megaplex/popcorn movie, but I Heart Huckabees comes highly recommended from me. I just hope somebody doesn't remake it in 15 years and adds fart jokes to appeal to a supposedly bigger audience.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air

Best of 2021

  Last year, my attention span was not wide enough to listen to a lot of LPs from start to finish. Too much went on in 2020 to focus on 10-15 albums, so I went with only a couple to spotlight. Well, 2021 was a little better, as I have a list of top four records, and a lot of individual tracks.  (I made a lengthy Spotify playlist ) So, without further ado, here’s my list of favorites of the year: Albums Deafheaven, Infinite Granite (listen) Hands down, my favorite album of the year. I was not sure where Deafheaven would go after another record that brought My Bloody Valentine and death metal fans together, but they beautifully rebooted their sound on Infinite Granite. The divisive goblin vocals are vastly pared-down here, as are the blast beats. Sounding more inspired by Slowdive, the band has discovered a new sonic palette that I hope they explore more of in the future. It’s a welcome revelation. I still love their older material, but this has renewed my love of what these guys do.  J